How Farmers In One Indian Village Crafted The Most Expensive Nutmeg and Mace | So Expensive

this alien-like red membrane is the spice mace when removed it reveals another spice nutmeg these twins come from a single fruit but mace is five times as expensive and a lot more fragile if it breaks while being separated from the nutmeg it will sell for much less than a whole one and if the fruit is picked even one day late both spices can easily be ruined by Fungus Pickers also have to deal with aggressive pests here in the town of Pachi India Farmers Harvest a special hybrid variety of the Dual spice that means Pachi farmers can sell their mace for $50 per kilg compared to the country's least producing City Cara which sells mace for $35 both are still far more more expensive than us mace selling at $9 per kilo and while Farmers often don't reap the major profits from what they harvest in polachi they've successfully cut out all middlemen to gain back control of their spices so what makes their nutmeg and mace so different from the rest and why are they so [Music] expensive it's early morning and cookie is getting ready to harvest the [Music] spices it's monsoon season and afternoons are usually pouring with rain so Kila needs to harvest quickly while nutmeg needs good rain to grow dry mornings like today are perfect for picking goila is one of four female Pickers who live on the farm and and will pick today during peak season there can be 10 Pickers at one time but today it's nearing the end of the season and the yield will be lower they expect to pick 800 to 1,000 [Music] fruits they use aluminium and bamboo poles to pick some trees grow up to 50 ft high so those can only be reached with the taller bamboo poles using these heavy poles while constantly looking up can leave the pickers with neck and shoulder pain the nutmeg and mace grow together inside a yellow fruit on the Marisa fragrance tree once it splits it's ready to be [Music] harvested if they leave it for any longer even one additional day it will quickly gather mold and be considered second class at about half the price so during harvest season Pickers need to check the fruits on the trees every day especially during the rainy season another stressor for Cula and the other Pickers are red ants also known as fire ants which nest in these trees in small trees the nests can be easier to detect and manage but when they're higher up the entire Nest can fall on them for the purpose of washing is not solely for insects it also helps to extract the mace from the fruit the women first remove the outer yellow fruit shell the fruit shells are cleaned and later sold fresh shells are edible and can be made into jams or jellies dried fruit can be blended with nut powder to be sold as a cheaper alternative they then separate the good from the rotten ones the good fruits are placed in water rinsed and soaked for at least 15 minutes once they have soaked long enough the mace covering will noticeably shrink and become much looser this is the most timeconsuming and delicate stage separating the mace from the nutmeg without damaging it they put their fingers in carefully to grasp the nut then twist slightly and gently and it snaps out they must do it [Music] [Music] slowly today it will take these women about 4 hours to finish plucking the mace and Nutmeg which is about 100 fruits per hour the ones that have already fallen to the the ground on their own do not need the same careful plucking they're much looser and easier to separate because of the fungus they've developed these will be half the price of the other fungus-free fresher nutmegs gokula and the others have successfully cleaned all the flowers without breaking any of them after the nutmeg and mace are separated both spices need to be dried in the open Sun if the heat is too intense the nut can crack so after one day Farmers move it to the shade shade drying also preserves the aroma some Farmers dry the nutmeg and mace in ovens but Bachi Farmers prefer to dry it in gentler conditions to preserve the structure all the best mace and Nutmeg without any fungi are then placed in separate drums where they can remain in good condition for over a year not all nutmeg and mace are the same the spices harvested in the West Indies in places like Grenada are lighter in color and have a milder flavor the more costly East Indian nutmeg and mace have a higher oil content which gives the spices a stronger Aroma and flavor these spices from guachi and its main competitor the carilla district both fall under the East Indian category and can sell for double the price of other varieties our m is really thick it is in a shape of a Lotus butd the shape itself is different since it is very thick it doesn't break very quickly this is Ranjit he's the owner of the nutmeg Farm here in the Pachi District most of renjit's profit comes from the mace it makes about five times as much as the nutmeg Pachi yield is 40% less than the carilla district but it has an advantage the rains are less intense and less continuous and low risk of fruit spoiling so these are the first class ones so if you cut open it's free from molds and it's has a good aroma and fragrance the spoiled ones will have a very foul smell these ones right now they cosing around 480 rupees per kilo uh the poach the nuts that are from Kerala they're only costing around 320 rupees while paachi is already an ideal location to grow the spices their high value is not fully the result of where they are grown but rather how ranit and other Farmers have perfected the fruit to grow larger and thicker more than double the size of another mace in India it took Ranjit years to develop a hybrid variety that has given paachi its competitive advantage he also has a nursery where they grow hybrid seedlings this has a good one succeeded see oh wait what [Music] happened come this way Ranjit also uses the farming technique of intercropping which means two crops share the soil to improve water attention in both the ideal inter crop for renjit's nutmeg trees are coconut plants because they also provide the right amount of shade but this premium quality was not always recognized or consistent with each Farmer in the region whenever it came time to sell Ranjit and the other Bachi Farmers grew frustrated they were dependent on the bigger City's expertise and experience to help them sell their product so ranit and the other Farmers came up with a plan they would all follow similar techniques separate the best quality and set the price themselves 2 years ago they formed a cooperative and used similar growing methods collectively they now grow about 500 Acres of nutmeg and mace in the global food industry this is significant because local farmers who make some of the world's most expensive Foods typically don't see the profits whether it's other Harvesters here in India who scour ponds for Fox nuts only to make cents for every kilogram harvested or small farmers harvesting green Cardman for hours by hand only to use most of their profits to cover production costs or workers in Bolivia fueling the global quinoa demand who can't afford to eat their own crop the success of the Pachi Cooperative has directly affected the quality of life for farmers and workers here like [Music] Gila [Music] recently they achieved their highest rate for mace selling to an Australian buyer for 3,200 rupees per kilo 14% more more than the aggregator rate for the Pachi Farmers The Cooperative made a big difference they sell to buyers across the globe and recently sold 12 tons of nutmeg and mace to a Dutch company among ourselves as a community we had multiplied the best planting material and now it is literally called the Pachi variety but the local Traders from Kerala come they ask for polachi m so it is doing very well for us [Music]

Channel: Business Insider

Views: 2,716,233

Keywords: Business Insider, Business News

Id: FXXWHa4CpC8

Length: 12min 6sec (726 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 14 2023